Amid a wider increase in the use of pre-emption rights across African oil and gas transactions, industry participants are reassessing long-held assumptions about how and when these rights are exercised, particularly by national oil companies (NOCs). The resurgence of such interventions, highlighted by high-profile deals in markets like Gabon and Angola, has underscored a more assertive role for state-linked players in shaping asset ownership and transaction outcomes.
Bracewell’s Adam Blythe told African Energy “The Gabon Oil Company acquisition of Assala was a notable example as that was a national oil company pre-empting on a high value transaction. It blew up the assumption that NOCs would not, and could not, utilize pre-emption rights.”
According to Blythe, the attraction of pre-emption to NOCs is that it offers a route for them to increase their interest in blocks where they already hold a stake but have been unable to agree a deal with the seller.
